TikTok to roll out enhanced age checks as social media ban pressure grows

TikTok is set to roll out enhanced age verification checks for users across Europe as it bids to clamp down on accounts made by under-13s.

The social media giant said its new technology will be able to “predict” whether an account is owned by a child under the age of 13 by using profile information, videos published, and “other on-platform behaviour”. Accounts will then be flagged to a human moderator, who will make a decision on whether to ban them.

It comes as Sir Keir Starmer faces mounting pressure to introduce an Australia-style social media ban for under-16s. A group of more than 60 Labour MPs wrote to the prime minister on Sunday and urged him to implement a blanket ban, accusing “successive governments” of doing “too little to protect young people from … unregulated, addictive social media platforms”.

The prime minister has not ruled out a ban, saying “we need to better protect children from social media”, and adding: “All options are on the table.”

Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch has also backed the measures, saying her party would introduce them if it were to win the next election.

But a number of prominent online safety and children’s charities have opposed any blanket ban, warning it may create a “false sense of safety” that would see children and predators move to other, less regulated, parts of the internet.

In a statement, TikTok said the latest age clampdown is set to be introduced “in the coming weeks”, and comes after a pilot scheme led to the removal of “thousands of additional underage accounts”.

It added that the new technology will be used in a “privacy-preserving manner” and only used to decide whether to flag an account to a human moderator or not.

The new measures join existing age gates and will “support” TikTok’s moderation teams to enforce its minimum age of 13.

“Protecting people’s privacy has been central to our work on this project,” it said. “By integrating data protection principles into the design phase of technology from the beginning, it ensures that the prediction of the likelihood that someone is under the age of 13 is not used for purposes other than to decide whether to send an account to human moderators and to monitor and improve the technology.”

TikTok added that it had “consulted extensively” with the Data Protection Commission (DPC) to adhere to Europe’s high data protection standards, and that users in Europe will receive a notification to notify them of the new technology.

The video-sharing app said users whose accounts are flagged as underage are able to use measures including facial age recognition, credit card authorisation, and ID checks to appeal the decision.

“At TikTok, we’re committed to keeping children under the age of 13 off our platform, providing teens with age-appropriate experiences, and continuing to assess and implement a range of solutions,” it said in a statement.

“We believe that a multi-layered approach to age assurance – one in which multiple techniques are used – is essential to protecting teens and upholding safety-by-design principles.”